You Wash I'll Dry

Synopsis:

Alecia "Alex" Knight has spent her life ensuring the world's most influential women and children have the tools and resources to get themselves out of trouble. Running one of the world's top self defense companies has its perks; and its drawbacks. Jaded by her high-school boyfriend, Alex has one rule; no dating clients. Because she eats, sleeps and breaths work, this rule has been quite convenient. That was until Marcus Jones walks into her life. Referred to her by his best friend, Alex is not impressed with his old fashioned views and demanding personality. That is until his seven year old daughter joins them. A devoted and doting father, Marcus and Isabella wiggle their way into Alex's heart. Can Alex work through the pain of her past and perform her duties at Knight Defense?

You Wash I’ll Dry was a non-suspenseful, (clean) romantic suspense story. What I mean by that is that the story probably best fits in that genre due to the incidents related to stalkers, break-ins, etc., but it was not written in such a way as to be overly suspenseful or scary. Which is good for me.

I liked the characters in the story. Marcus was the dreamy, protective, gentlemanly, father figure who tended to do everything right, so he was a little unbelievable. Alex was a petite, feisty woman who had learned to be independent and is not very trusting of men, at least where relationships are concerned. The story was interesting to read, and the various challenges presented were written well.

The story was written in present tense, which was very annoying. I have read other books that were written that way, and it is very hard to do well. We don’t tell stories in present tense, and you can’t have an entire 163 pages worth of adventures happen at the same time, so, for me, it just doesn’t work. There were also a few places where the tense was not consistent, most likely because it is so unnatural the author slipped into it by accident. I imagine it is harder to write this way than it seems.

There were several instances of mild swearing in the book. While the word used was pretty innocuous and many people wouldn’t have even batted an eye at it, my preference is to not have any swearing in the books I read. And the place it was used was not even anywhere that I felt that it was necessary or appropriate.

There was a very small Christian influence in the book. There were a few mentions of prayer before meals and Alex and Marcus had a short conversation about God, but not so much as to make this a “Christian” story according to my definition. Alex was at first concerned that Marcus’ mention of God made it sound like he didn’t have a relationship with Him and after that it wasn’t mentioned any more at all. That did bug me a little, because if it was a concern, I want to know why she just let it slide completely after that conversation.

While this is the first book of a series, the main thread of the story was resolved without a cliff-hanger.